Monday, June 26, 2017

A careful look at what's missing from the Meeker report (including trust, evidently); a willingness to call out bad behavior in Silicon Valley; areas of impact of AI in healthcare; the end of car ownership; media habits of Gen Y and Gen Z compared; trends on influencer marketing; executives' preference for thought leadership; Amazon may not get away with Whole Foods without a fight; manufacturing trends portend retail trends; original TV programming is coming to social platforms; China bans livestreaming; the impact of Echo on the music industry; the ousting of Travis Kalanick as Uber's CEO and all of the fallout around it; Google Analytics for content marketers; the importance of preparation amid crisis; and more in the inquisitive edition of The Full Monty. Don't forget check out where Brain+Trust is speaking (final section below).

We've got all of these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — in The Full Monty Magazine on Flipboard.

Top Stories

Unless you've been sleeping in your cab all week, you're aware that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned. More on the industry fallout in the Regulatory / Security section below.

We all know and trust the annual Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers Internet Trends Report delivered annually by Mary Meeker (as shared in the June 5 edition here). But in a bit of sleuthing, Tom Webster has determined that all may not be as it seems. While the report is exhaustive, Tom found that it's a matter of what isn't there that speaks volumes: namely, that the Meeker report presents data primarily from KPCB portfolio companies, thus assuring that "Internet trends" will be set by the companies that it funds. A clever bit of content marketing. And possibly an ethical morass.

Is Kalanick's ousting at Uber the cultural tipping point that made it safe to address these issues publicly? Given that there was a bit of hesitancy in condemning Caldbeck's behavior publicly until Hoffman spoke out, it seems that the industry still has progress to make.

In the final part of this 9-part series, Christopher Penn concludes that the future of AI in marketing – or many other fields – is bright, but "so are our prospects if we’re willing to adapt and work with the machines, rather than oppose them." It should be augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence. Check out the whole series (linked in his article).

AUTONOMOUS

Ride sharing and self-driving vehicles will redefine our relationship with cars, and auto makers and startups alike are gearing up for the change. The Wall Street Journal ran a special section on the Future of Transportation, leading with a rather hyperbolic headline, "The End of Car Ownership."

The Tesla driver involved in a fatal autonomous driving accident ignored repeated warnings to put his hands on the wheel before he crashed into the rear of a semi-trailer, shearing off the top third of his car. According to the NHTSA report, during a 37-minute period when he should have had his hands on the steering wheel, the driver did so for only 25 seconds. We're still not ready for autonomous driving. It's not like ignoring your "check engine" light, folks.

In the Waymo vs. Uber suit, parent company Alphabet claims that Travis Kalanick knew that Otto CEO and former Waymo leader Anthony Lewandowski was in possession of Waymo files five months before Uber acquired Otto. That sounds like grounds for firing—oh, wait...

When it comes to thought leadership, busy executives prefer longer content according to the Deloitte Center for Industry Insights. While it might seem counter-intuitive, it stands to reason that executives might like more demonstrated deeper thinking rather than flash-in-the-pan insights.

As Walmart grows its e-commerce chops, there are struggles with culture assimilation — notably startups learning about Walmart's alcohol-free policies the hard way. While a ban on free alcohol may be a tough pill for some startups to swallow, given the recent spate of questionable behavior across Silicon Valley, perhaps this seasoned view can offer some benefit.

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Facebook will launch a standalone app for video creators later this year which features a new suite of tools that Facebook is referring to as its Live Creative Kit, to help creators make their streams look more professional.

ALPHABET / GOOGLE

At VidCon, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki made a number of announcements about YouTube users and products. Those included: 1.5 billion logged-in viewers visit YouTube each month and viewers watch an average of 1 hour a day; YouTube TV will expand to 10 markets; and there's a new look coming for desktop and mobile.

If you work for a brand and would like to know about some of the key developments in video technology, shooting and editing techniques, and examples of social video campaigns, check out this brands' guide to social video.

AUDIO

Pandora CEO Tim Westergren is stepping down. The company does not have a replacement planned. This comes at a critical time, as the company looks to maintain its market lead over Spotify and with the recent investment by Sirius XM.

Contrast that with these 10 famous book hoarders. An old colleauge once said that his book collecting habit had all of the discernment of a vacuum cleaner, owing to the fact that he was "more of a book accumulator than a book collector."

Brain+Trust Partners doesn't believe in gobbledygook — we use common sense strategic guidance to help you master the evolving marketplace. From strategy development to technology and data vendor selection, to digital transformation and streamlining processes, our focus is on the customer experience. And our decades of experience working for major brands means that we deeply understand the challenges you're facing. Let us know if we can help you.